NITI Aayog & Partners Launch India’s 1st E-bus Coalition

NITI Aayog has launched the e-Sawaari India Electric Bus Coalition in partnership with Convergence Energy Service Limited (CESL) and World Resources Institute, India, (WRI India), and supported by Transformative Urban Mobility Initiative (TUMI).

Through the e-Sawaari India Electric Bus Coalition, the central-, state-, and city-level government agencies, transit service providers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), financing institutions, and ancillary service providers will be able to share knowledge and their learnings on e-bus adoption in India.

Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, said, “Electrification of public transport especially in the bus sector is key to India’s decarbonization strategy. The e-Sawaari India Electric Bus Coalition is a step toward ensuring steady and paced electrification of the bus transport system in India. Identifying innovative means to address the challenges of procurement, operations and financing e-bus deployment at scale is crucial to achieve net zero emissions.”

Electric bus adoption has gained traction in India and multiple cities and their governments have embarked on the journey of electrifying their bus-based transport system. The recent impetus from the Government of India to aggregate e-bus demand from the nine largest Indian cities – under the ambit of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India (FAME) scheme, Phase – II, through the ongoing Grand Challenge for Deployment of e-Buses – has encouraged more State Government Undertakings (STUs) to change their bus fleet to electric, stated NITI Aayog.

Speaking at the launch, Ms. Mahua Acharya, CEO, Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), said, “It is imperative for multiple players to come into the electric bus eco system – be it financiers, banking partners, IT service providers or utility firms in addition to state transport undertaking and original equipment manufacturers. An enabling ecosystem to access funding and financing of electric buses is the need of the hour for scaled up adoption of electric buses.”

Dr. OP Agarwal, CEO, WRI India, said, “Need of the hour is to find high-impact solutions to address urban pollution, nudging a positive climate action, and enhancing urban living. To scale up e-bus adoption, we need to address its challenges – procurement, operational and financial. As a coalition, e-Sawaari will be able to facilitate discussions and identify innovative solutions to scale up e-bus adoption.

Mr. Rohan Shailesh Modi, Asia Co-ordinator -TUMI E-Bus Mission said, “The e-Saawari India electric bus coalition aims to give a fresh impetus to India’s e-bus sector by bringing cities, private sector and financiers work jointly to address the sectoral challenges. TUMI E-Bus we need to address the challenges with protocooperation” Mission is happy to support this unique initiative co-led by NITI AAYOG and CESL.”

NITI Aayog is a public policy think tank of the Government of India, established with the aim to achieve sustainable development goals with cooperative federalism by fostering the involvement of state governments of India in the economic policy-making process using a bottom-up approach.